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Brazilian Academic art was a major art style in Brazil from the early 19th century to the early 20th century, based on European academic art and produced in official institutions of professional art education. [1]
Brazilian academic art was not affiliated with only one art movement, but rather with several different ones during its course. At first, it was part of the Neoclassicism movement, being one of its main forces of local diffusion. Later, it also incorporated the romanticism, realism and symbolism movements, as well as others that were typical of the 20th century turn, while cleansing them of any characteristic that did not fit academic formality. [2]
The main official institution of Brazilian academic art was the Escola Real de Ciências, Artes e Ofícios (Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts), founded in 1816 by Dom João VI, later renamed Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (Imperial Academy of Fine Arts) and finally Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (National School of Fine Arts). Its incorporation by the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), in 1931, marks the end of the academic art style in Brazil. Even so, the vibrant legacy of Brazilian academic art remains significant until present day. [2]
Academic Art can also refer, in a broader sense, to any art produced under influence of academies and universities, at any time. In this sense, Brazilian academic art survived the emergence of modernism and other 20th-century art trends and continued after 1931, and thus contemporary Brazilian art schools and universities can be considered direct successors of the Escola Real de Ciências, Artes and Ofícios and the Académie des Beaux-Arts. [3]
The Missão Artística Francesa (French Artistic Mission) arrived in Brazil in 1816 proposing the creation of an art academy modeled after the respected Académie des Beaux-Arts, with graduation courses both for artists and craftsmen for activities such as modeling, decorating, carpentry and others.
Joachim Lebreton, the leader of the Missão and founder of the project, determined the schedule of classes, course structure and assessment criteria. Moreover, he was also responsible for suggesting public employment for the graduates, ways to expand public collections and determining the human and material resources needed to run the school.
This proposal, immediately welcomed by Dom João VI, led to the founding of the Escola Real de Ciências Artes e Ofícios. However, the Escola would face serious practical difficulties in its start and would take at least ten years to get into operation permanently, leading to its reopening on November 5, 1826, in the presence of Emperor Dom Pedro I, as the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes. [4] With the founding of the Escola were created the initial conditions for the birth of academic art in Brazil, and both Brazilian academic art and the Escola would be inextricably linked.
Antônio Diogo da Silva Parreiras was a Brazilian painter, designer and illustrator.
Jean-Baptiste Debret was a French painter, who produced many valuable lithographs depicting the people of Brazil. Debret won the second prize at the 1798 Salon des Beaux Arts.
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, commonly known as Almeida Júnior, was a Brazilian artist and designer; one of the first there to paint in the Realistic tradition of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet. The "Dia do Artista Plástico" is celebrated on his birthday.
The French Artistic Mission in Brazil was a group of French artists and architects that came to Rio de Janeiro, then the capital city of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, in March 1816, under the auspices of the royal court of Portugal, which had been transferred to Brazil since 1808 due to Portugal's invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Mission, led by Joachim Lebreton, had the mission of establishing the Escola Real de Ciências, Artes e Ofícios, which later became the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes.
Victor Meirelles de Lima was a Brazilian painter and teacher who is best known for his works relating to his nation's culture and history. From humble origins, his talent was soon recognized, being admitted as a student at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He specialized in the genre of history painting, and upon winning the Academy's Foreign Travel Award, he spent several years training in Europe. There he painted his best-known work, Primeira Missa no Brasil. Returning to Brazil, he became one of emperor Pedro II's favorite painters, joining the monarch's patronage program and aligning himself with his proposal to renew the image of Brazil through the creation of visual symbols of its history.
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938 by President Getúlio Vargas. The museum collection, on the other hand, takes its rise in the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil in the early 19th century, when King John VI brought along with him part of the Portuguese Royal Collection. This art collection stayed in Brazil after the King's return to Europe and became the core collection of the National School of Fine Arts. When the museum was created in 1937, it became the heir not only the National School collection, but also of its headquarters, a 1908 eclectic style building projected by Spanish architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos.
The creation of art in the geographic area now known as Brazil begins with the earliest records of its human habitation. The original inhabitants of the land, pre-Columbian Indigenous or Natives peoples, produced various forms of art; specific cultures like the Marajoara left sophisticated painted pottery. This area was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century and given the modern name of Brazil. Brazilian art is most commonly used as an umbrella term for art created in this region post Portuguese colonization.
Escola de Belas Artes is one of the centers of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and dates back to colonial times.
Pedro Américo de Figueiredo e Melo was a Brazilian novelist, poet, scientist, art theorist, essayist, philosopher, politician and professor, but is best remembered as one of the most important academic painters in Brazil, leaving works of national impact. From an early age he showed an inclination towards the arts, being considered a child prodigy. At a very young age, he participated as a draftsman on an expedition of naturalists through the Brazilian northeast, and received government support to study at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He did his artistic improvement in Paris, studying with famous painters, but he also dedicated himself to science and philosophy. Soon after his return to Brazil, he began to teach at the Academy and began a successful career, gaining prominence with great paintings of a civic and heroic character, inserting himself in the civilizing and modernizing program of the country fostered by emperor Pedro II, of which the Imperial Academy was the regulatory and executive arm in the artistic sphere.
Rodolfo Amoedo was a Brazilian painter, designer and decorator.
Eliseu Visconti, born Eliseo d'Angelo Visconti was an Italian-born Brazilian painter, cartoonist, and teacher. He is considered one of the very few impressionist painters of Brazil. He is considered the initiator of the art nouveau in Brazil.
Nicolas-Antoine Taunay was a French painter known best for his landscapes with scenes from ancient and modern history, mythology, and religion.
The Imperial Academy of Fine Arts was an institution of higher learning in the arts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, established by King João VI. Despite facing many initial difficulties, the Academy was established and took its place at the forefront of Brazilian arts education in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Academy became the center of the diffusion of new aesthetic trends and the teaching of modern artistic techniques. It eventually became one of the principal arts institutions under the patronage of Emperor Dom Pedro II. With the Proclamation of the Republic, it became known as the National School of Fine Arts. It became extinct as an independent institution in 1931, when it was absorbed by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and became known as the UFRJ School of Fine Arts, which still operates today.
Modesto Brocos y Gómez was a Spanish-Brazilian painter and engraver.
Belmiro Barbosa de Almeida was a Brazilian painter, illustrator, sculptor and caricaturist.
Sessão do Conselho de Estado is an artwork of the genre historical painting made by Georgina de Albuquerque in 1922. It portrays the session that took place on 2 September 1822 of the State Council of Brazil, preceding Brazilian independence. The artwork is part of the collection on exhibition at the National Historical Museum of Brazil, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Oscar Pereira da Silva was a Brazilian painter, draftsman, designer, and instructor. He was active from the end of the 19th to the mid-20th century. He is noted for his depictions of historical events in Brazil, but also completed numerous portraits, religious works, genre scenes, still lifes, and landscapes. He "paid no attention to Brazilian folk tradition" and painted in an "antique style." After a period of study in France, he pursued a lucrative career in São Paulo, where his works are displayed at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and the Museu do Ipiranga.
Brazilian Romantic painting was the main expression of the plastic arts in Brazil in the second half of the 19th century. This pictorial production was part of the local evolution of the Romantic movement and approximately coincided with the period of the Second Reign, but its characteristics were unique, differing in several points in relation to the original version of European Romanticism and likewise cannot be considered an exact parallel to the manifestation of Romanticism in Brazilian literature of the same period. It had a palatial and restrained aspect, brought a strong neoclassical influence and soon blended with Realism, Symbolism and other schools, in an eclectic synthesis that prevailed until the early years of the 20th century.
The Lisbon School of Fine Arts was a university-level school for painting, sculpture and architecture. It started life in 1836 as part of the National Academy of Fine Arts and, since 1992, has formed the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. Many of Portugal's most famous artists have passed through the school.